Blizzard just revealed WoW cross-faction for Dungeons & Raids: Full details

Blizzard have announced the biggest quality of life update for World of Warcraft to date with the introduction of cross-faction gameplay between the Horde and the Alliance for PVP, dungeons, and raids.

“Times change.” Blizzard are breaking their own barriers in WoW by allowing people to play the game with friends regardless of the side they pledged their allegiance to. This outright betrays the exclusionary norm in WoW up until now and will usher in a new era for the classic MMORPG.

But Blizzard are aware of its die-hard fandoms who can be both for and against this update. It’s for this reason that the system will be fluid by allowing cross-faction for some of the most popular gameplay modes as well as give every individual a choice to opt-in or not.

Some aspects like Guilds and a few other activities will remain faction-locked, but there will be a ton of other ways for Horde heroes to team up with the Alliance legion.

WoW cross-faction Dungeons, Raids

Blizzard

The Horde and Alliance will raise arms together after the WoW 9.2.5 update.

Alliance and Horde members will be able to form premade parties for dungeons, raids, and rated Player versus Player (PvP).

These premades let players from both sides start a party and chat. However, Alliance and Horde members will still be rivals throughout Azeroth and in War Mode.

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Once the party of Horde/Alliance enters a dungeon, raid or PvP setting, everyone will be friendly and able to play WoW together.

WoW cross-faction update release date

The World of Warcraft cross-faction update is expected to release in the 9.2.5 update but will launch in the Public Test Realm (PTR) the day Eternity’s End officially launches. No release dates for the 9.2.5 update or Eternity’s End have been announced.

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This is a massive change-up to how World of Warcraft generally operates so Blizzard couldn’t ship it in time for Eternity’s End but it should be out soon after.

Where WoW cross-faction won’t work

via Wowhead

Some instances in WoW won’t be readily available for cross-faction play.

For one reason or another, some elements in WoW will not have cross-faction either for the time being or as a standard.

WoW cross-faction will not work with:

• Guilds
• Heroic dungeons
• Skirmishes
• Random Battlegrounds

WoW cross-faction might soon come to:

• Battle of Dazar’alor
• Trial of the Crusader
• Icecrown Citadel
• Other legacy faction-specific instances in need of a rework

In either case, there will be plenty of opportunities to merge your best Alliance character with your friends’ best Horde account once the WoW cross-faction update hits the live servers.